Psychosocial Adjustment of Adolescent Boys from Inner-City, Low-Income, Single-Mother Families: Evaluation of a Youth Program

This study utilized a quasi-experimental, pretest–posttest design to evaluate the effectiveness of a community-based program (Power of Dad; POD) for promoting inner-city, low-income, fatherless boys’ psychosocial well-being. This program provides these boys with a 5-month experiential curriculum that includes psychological health and social skills. Graduates from the program were compared to a control group from the same community in terms of pretest–posttest differences in four psychosocial outcomes: self-esteem, overall quality of life, mother–adolescent closeness, and attitude toward physical dating violence. The findings suggest that the program had positive effects on closeness with the mother and the overall quality of life for inner-city, low-income, fatherless boys who completed the program. Implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed.